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Cornering the Birthday Ideas Market

I follow news about birthdays. I know, you’re not surprised. Well, recently, I encountered a press release that annoyed me. InventHelp.com was promoting the invention of a “Birthday Wizard” character concept. The brief release announced: “an inventor from Monroe Township, N.J., wants to establish a familiar character who celebrates the joy of birthdays.” We’re told, “The aesthetic and easy-to-use BIRTHDAY WIZARD represents the spirit of children’s birthdays. It makes birthday celebrations more dynamic and exciting, as well as provides entertainment.”

The release offers no other detail about this wizard concept or how on earth this might qualify as an unique invention. The anonymous inventor is quoted as saying, “My granddaughter and I were having a conversation about birthdays, and I had the idea for my design.”

So, this grandmother submitted her design to InventHelp to advertise the concept and tell us the design is “currently available for licensing or sale to manufacturers or marketers.” How much do you suppose she is paying for the privilege of having InventHelp write a vague press release offering her not particularly original design?

A quick search by yours truly turns up a BirthdayWizard.com, a strange birthday wizard youtube video, and several birthday wizard-related images. Here’s a fun one:

Birthdays have been around for centuries. I’m not saying there are not going to be new ideas around the concept. Yet, if you have any creative concept brainstorms, you might want to do a little of your own research online before paying some company to help you promote your “aesthetic and easy-to-use” design. It’s sad to me that someone trying to make birthdays more dynamic will be seeing her own money go “poof!”